Locksley Resources wins green light for US antimony-rare earths drilling blitz
- James Pearson
- Oct 3
- 3 min read
Locksley Resources (ASX: LKY) has hit the exploration accelerator at its Mojave critical minerals project in California after winning the green light from the state’s Bureau of Land Management to expand its plan of operations at the historic Desert antimony mine.
The company says final approvals will be granted when the last piece of paperwork for an environmental bond has been lodged. Locksley will then be able to push on with a range of exploration programs it believes could help the United States get back into the antimony and rare earths game.
At the same time, management has secured a drill contractor to kick off rare earths exploration at its El Campo prospect in the December quarter.
The Desert antimony mine, which was last worked in the 1930s, is now firmly back on the radar. According to the company, a newly completed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) survey has mapped the underground workings in remarkable detail, producing a three-dimensional wireframe model that will guide the next drill targets and help with mine design.
Locksley is now preparing to open up an adit 50 metres southeast of the old smelter to run underground mapping and sampling. The work is aimed at cracking the code on the orientation, grade and continuity of the stibnite-rich quartz-carbonate veins below surface. Remarkably, two crosscutting tunnels still hold original timber beams and ladders left behind by the old timers in the late 1920s and 1930s.
If the grades hold up, the Desert antimony prospect could prove to be one of the US’s highest-grade occurrences - a tantalising prize given America does not currently produce any antimony at all.
Meanwhile, rigs are headed for El Campo, a rare earths target lying along strike from MP Materials’ fabled Mountain Pass mine. The program is designed to hit a steeply dipping mineralised horizon across five drill pads along an 860m strike.
Recent rock chip samples from outcropping mineralisation at El Campo lit up the lab with jaw-dropping total rare earth oxide grades hitting 12.1 per cent, including 3.19 per cent neodymium-praseodymium. It’s no wonder that the first drill hole is set to chase the outcrop southwest down-plunge, aiming to tap into the high-grade system lurking beneath the surface.
With MP Materials’ claims enveloping the El Campo ground, Locksley is probing the same geological system that hosts North America’s only operating rare earths mine. Success here could be quick and potentially transformational.
Since commencing as CEO, my focus has been on advancing Mojave through multiple, parallel workstreams. The exploration team is rapidly progressing technical programs, from securing a drill rig to underground sampling and LiDAR surveys at the Desert antimony mine. With the plan of operations now approved pending bond finalisation, we are commencing activities to prepare for the initial drilling at the El Campo rare earths target.
Locksley Resources CEO Kerrie Matthews
Beyond its two flagship prospects, Locksley is mobilising regional fieldwork across the company’s three recently acquired land packages, which stretch more than 40 square kilometres north and east of its existing project area.
First up, the company will hit the ground with stream sediment sampling, rock chips and reconnaissance mapping. At the same time, management is looking into the most effective geophysical tool - whether it be airborne magnetic, radiometric or induced polarisation surveys - to sniff out fresh targets. These could include the tantalising possibility of carbonatite intrusions like those that power the world-class Mountain Pass rare earths deposit.
With antimony listed as a critical mineral by Washington and rare earths front and centre in the global energy transition, Locksley’s Mojave project could hardly be better timed. The company’s claims sit cheek-by-jowl with MP Materials, it controls a historic US antimony mine, and it has already mapped out a clear technical pathway to production.
For punters hunting leverage to America’s urgent push for critical minerals independence, Locksley is certainly barging its way onto centre stage.
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